Tonifying qi and Warming yang, a compound traditional Chinese herbal medicine, suppresses AngII-induced cardiac H9c2 cells apoptosis through regulating PI3K/Akt signaling pathway

• Published in: Medicinal chemistry research Vol. 27; no. 2; pp. 366 - 373
• Main Authors: Zou, Guoliang, Zhong, Weili, Jin, Juan, Sui, Yanbo, Liu, Li
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.02.2018; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: 1-Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase; AKT protein; Angiotensin II; Apoptosis; Bax protein; Bcl-2 protein; Biochemistry; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Caspase-3; Cell Biology; Cytometry; Flow cytometry; Gene expression; Genes; Herbal medicine; Medicine; Membrane potential; Mitochondria; mRNA; Original Research; Pharmacology/Toxicology; Rats; Signal transduction; Signaling; Chinese herbal medicine; Tonifying qi and Warming yang; PI3K/Akt signaling pathway; AngII
• ISSN: 1054-2523; 1554-8120
• DOI: 10.1007/s00044-017-2043-2

This study aims to evaluate the effects of Tonifying qi and Warming yang on Ang II-induced cardiac apoptosis and mitochondrial dysfunction and to explore the underlying mechanism. Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were treated with Tonifying qi and Warming yang, and the drug-contained serum was used in our experiment. Ang II-treated H9c2 cells were administered with drug-contained serum in different concentrations. The cell viability was determined by MTT and cell apoptosis was analyzed by the Flow cytometry instrument. The changes of mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) was detected by Rho123 assay. qRT-PCR, Western blot and immunocytochemical staining were used to measure the mRNA and protein expression levels, respectively. Our results showed that drug-contained serum treatment prevented AngII-induced cell viability inhibition, suppressed AngII-induced apoptosis and prevented AngII-induced MMP reduction. Mechanically, drug-contained serum treatment prevented AngII-induced apoptosis by regulating expression of apoptosis-related genes, Bcl-2, Bax, Cyt-c, caspase-3, and PI3K. Besides, we found LY29400, an inhibitor of PI3K, reversed the effects of drug-contained serum treatment on apoptosis-related genes (p-AKT, Bcl-2, and Bax) in AngII-treated H9c2 cells. Totally, Tonifying qi and Warming yang, a compound traditional Chinese herbal medicine, suppresses AngII-induced cardiac H9c2 cells apoptosis through regulating PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.